Paradise Kiss
Awhile ago, mizo_no_oto introduced me to a manga called "Paradise Kiss," which I did not read in full, but which kind of caught my attention due to its Velvet Goldmine references. I liked the various allusions made in the manga, but I found the plot itself somewhat tedious and disjointed, and the flow of the page layouts too scrambled to read easily. However, it's recently been made into an anime, and I'm pleasantly surprised that much of this has been smoothed over in the animated version. I'm still not incredibly taken with the story, but I am really impressed with the art, so I wanted to share it with you.
The story as it goes, by the way, concerns your average schoolgirl who is hailed on the street one day by a boy who belongs to an atelier of aspiring young designers, and is persuaded into being a model for them. The plot then follows her romance with one of the members of this group and her general relationship with the rest, the tension between her pre-planned scholastic apirations and the more unconventional lifestyle they open up to her, as well as her eventual ascent in the modeling world. (You know, the usual.)
I'm not sure what to think of the fact that the fashion-designer group is made up of a combination of all the "alternative" archetypes--that is, I'm not sure whether to find it amusing or overdone.
Going right-to-left, you've got your Elegant Transgendered character, your Stylish Playboy Bisexual, (we'll ignore the main schoolgirl), your Japanese Punk, and your Gothic Lolita.
(P.S. Is there a reason why so many trans/crossdressing characters have blue/purple hair? We've also got Nuriko and Fisheye...)
To the story's credit, its ending is rather less cliche and predictable than it might seem in terms of where all the characters end up. That is, it's not like it's a huge unexpected surprise necessarily, but it's more unsentimentally realistic than I tend to expect from shoujo manga.
But again, the point of this post is to talk not about the story, but the art and animation style. Which is gorgeous. The production values are really high, and there is not a frame that is sloppily drawn. The designs follow the manga ones very closely, and the animation uses a mix of drawings and photographs and mixed-up styles that gives the whole thing a very modern and edgy feeling.
Some examples:
ParaKiss opening song:
ParaKiss ending song (Franz Ferdinand, even!)
Music video showing internal style.
I think video does the best job of showing what the anime looks like, and is the highest quality in terms of video clarity. ...Unfortunately, it's also set to Aqua's "Barbie Girl." So I'm not sure I can recommend it except on the mute setting.
The story as it goes, by the way, concerns your average schoolgirl who is hailed on the street one day by a boy who belongs to an atelier of aspiring young designers, and is persuaded into being a model for them. The plot then follows her romance with one of the members of this group and her general relationship with the rest, the tension between her pre-planned scholastic apirations and the more unconventional lifestyle they open up to her, as well as her eventual ascent in the modeling world. (You know, the usual.)
I'm not sure what to think of the fact that the fashion-designer group is made up of a combination of all the "alternative" archetypes--that is, I'm not sure whether to find it amusing or overdone.
Going right-to-left, you've got your Elegant Transgendered character, your Stylish Playboy Bisexual, (we'll ignore the main schoolgirl), your Japanese Punk, and your Gothic Lolita.
(P.S. Is there a reason why so many trans/crossdressing characters have blue/purple hair? We've also got Nuriko and Fisheye...)
To the story's credit, its ending is rather less cliche and predictable than it might seem in terms of where all the characters end up. That is, it's not like it's a huge unexpected surprise necessarily, but it's more unsentimentally realistic than I tend to expect from shoujo manga.
But again, the point of this post is to talk not about the story, but the art and animation style. Which is gorgeous. The production values are really high, and there is not a frame that is sloppily drawn. The designs follow the manga ones very closely, and the animation uses a mix of drawings and photographs and mixed-up styles that gives the whole thing a very modern and edgy feeling.
Some examples:
ParaKiss opening song:
ParaKiss ending song (Franz Ferdinand, even!)
Music video showing internal style.
I think video does the best job of showing what the anime looks like, and is the highest quality in terms of video clarity. ...Unfortunately, it's also set to Aqua's "Barbie Girl." So I'm not sure I can recommend it except on the mute setting.